GM promotes Morrissey to oversee corporate media relations

DETROIT: Pat Morrissey will step into the role of director of communications strategy and news relations at General Motors on September 2.

Reporting to Randy Arickx, executive director of financial comms and IR, Morrissey will oversee GM’s corporate media relations. He will act as company spokesman and be responsible for GM’s broadcast, social media, and public-policy communications, according to Terry Rhadigan, executive director of product and technology communications at GM.

Morrissey will take on the position as Greg Martin, who is currently responsible for those duties as executive director of communications strategy and news operations, moves into a new role at the company as executive director of global public policy. Martin will report to Bob Ferguson, SVP of global public policy, in the new role.

"[Morrissey’s] new role will be very similar to the scope of the job [Martin] currently has," said Rhadigan.

Morrissey currently reports to Rhadigan as GM’s director of product and brand communications, a position he has held for five years. In the role, he has led the product and brand team through product launches, helped to tell the GM product and corporate story, and served in key positions during GM’s bankruptcy and ignition-switch recall crisis response.

Rhadigan said GM has not yet determined if it will replace Morrissey as director of product and brand communications. Rhadigan will take on that role’s duties in the interim.

Morrissey joined GM in 1986 and has served in various comms leadership positions since, including director of communications for Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East, according to his LinkedIn profile.